Container having a flexible wall



y 1956 R. A. BIT MICHEL NALPAS 3,250,742

CONTAINER HAVING A FLEXIBLE WALL Filed Aug. 5, 1962 2 Sheets-Sheet 1FIGI may 10, 1966 R. L. A. BIT MICHEL NALPAS 3,250,742

CONTAINER HAVING A FLEXIBLE WALL Filed Aug. 5, 1962 2 SheetsSheet 23,250,742 CONTAINER HAVING A FLEXIBLE WALL Raoul Louis Albert dit MichelNalpas, Marcq en Baroeul,

France, assignor to Societe Anonyme Pronal, Roubaix (Nord), France, acorporation ofFrance Filed Aug. 3, 1962, Ser. No. 214,661 Claimspriority, application France, Aug. 16, 19.61,

870,828; Jan. 29, 1962, 886,283

Claims. (Cl. 206-46) The present invention relates to containers havingflexible and fluidtight walls capable of being folded and/or rolled upand intended to store, and more particularly transport, liquid'orpowdered products.

Experience has shown that although a container having merely a flexiblewall can be used without difliculty in a fixed installation, it hasserious drawbacks when it is placed on a vehicle and especially a roadvehicle since as the wall of the container is not sufliciently held inposition, the container is liable to become deformed and in particularto lean over in the lateral or longitudinal direction owing to the massof the liquid or powdered products contained therein, especially inbends in the roads and during accelerations and decelerations. The factthat the container is thus thrown out of balance could be the cause ofserious accidents.

The object of the invention is to remedy these disadvantages in a simplemanner without diminishing in any way the possibilities of folding orrolling up the container when empty.

The invention provides a container, having a flexible flui'dtight wallwhich is capable of being folded and/or rolled up, for liquids orpowdered products and more particularly for the transportation of saidproducts over land, on rivers or the sea, or in the air. This containercomprises inflatable fluidtight compartments, said compartments beingsecured to the Wall of the container and adapted to project into thespace defined by said wall when they are inflated so as to stiffen thecontainer not only as a result of their own rigidity consequential totheir inflation but also owing to the fact that when the container isfull at least portions of the wall are put under tension under theefiect of the pressure exerted by said compartments on theincompressible product filling the container.

Owing to the aforementioned feature, excellent rigidity is secured whenthe container is full and the compartments are inflated and consequentlythe container has high stability when it is placed on a vehiclesubjected to lateral or longitudinal forces while it is still possibleto fold and/ or roll up the container when empty.

In a preferred embodiment in which the container has an elongatedcylindro-prismatic or like shape, at least a certain number of thestiffening compartments have a transverse arcuate shape.

Preferably each compartment has a crescent shape and is formed by theinterconnection of two transverse side walls also having identicalcrescent shapes, the inner and outer edges of said walls having the sameradius, which permits cutting the Walls from a strip of fluidtightmaterial without waste.

Further features and advantages of the invention will become apparentfrom the ensuing description with reference to the accompanying drawingsto which the invention is in no way limited.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic longitudinal sectional view taken along line 11of FIG. 2 of a container according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a corresponding plan view thereof;

FIG. 3 is an end elevational view thereof, the container being shownsecured to the platform of a vehicle by a supporting frame;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line 4-4 of FIG. 2;

United States Patent FIG. 5' is a diagrammatic sectional view takenalong line 55 of FIG. 3 on an enlarged scale, of one of thecrescent-shaped stiffening compartments, and

FIG. 6 is a perspective View of the container in the direction of arrowF shown in FIG. 2.

In the embodiment shown in the drawings, the body R of the container hasa semi-cylindrical shape and a flat base since it comprises asemi-cylindrical upper wall or skin 1, a flat bottom wall or skin 2 andtwo end walls or skins 3 and 4 which are substantially flat when thecontainer body R is fairly full of product.

The body R comprises a strictly fluidtight and flexible wall, forexample consisting of fabric coated with a fluidtight product. Thefabric can be a natural textile fabric such as cotton, or of a syntheticmaterial such as a polyamide, superpolyamide or rayon. The fluidtightproduct can be natural or synthetic rubber or a plastic material such aspolyvinyl chloride, a polyester or a superpolyamide.

, The container body R is provided according to the in vention with anumber of stiffening pockets or compartments P P P P each of which has acrescent shape and is associated with substantially the entiretransverse extent of the semi-cylindrical wall 1, the two endcompartments P and P 'also being associated with the end walls 3 and 4.

These compartments are rendered integral with the wall of the body R by,for example, welding, sticking, stitching and/ or clipping so that whenthese compartments are inflated as shown in the figures they, on the onehand,

. slightly project from the outer face of the body R and, on

the other hand, project much further inwardly of said this liquid andthis pressure, in acting through the medium of the liquid, stretches thewall of the body R and imparts to the assembly the required rigidity.

Each pocket or compartment can be advantageously constituted as shown inFIGS. 3 and 5 by two side walls 5 and 6 which have a crescent shape,their outer and inner edges 7 and 8 being circular and having the sameradius of curvature. This permits, as has already been mentioned,cutting these walls without waste from a strip of material whichconstitutes these compartments and which can be identical or similar tothat constituting the wall of the container body R. I

These two walls 5 and-6 are preferably united along their edges 7 and 8by two gussets, namely an outer gusset 9 and an inner gusset 10, securedto these walls by for example welding, sticking or stitching.Preferably, two joint-covering strips 11 and 12 are also provided.

In FIGS. '1, 2 and 4 the constructional details of the compartments havenot been shown in order to render the drawing more clear.

The assembly comprising the container body R and the compartments P P PP bear on longitudinal straps 13 of a rigid securing frame C to whichthis assembly is secured by lateral transverse ties or straps 14attached to the assembly. The frame consists of two longitudinal bars 15and a number of transverse bars, namely end transverse bars 16 andintermediate transverse bars 17, these various elements of the framebeing interconnected by sleeves, such as 18. The corner sleeves carryrings or other handling means 19.

The assembly is completed by means for filling and emptying thecontainer body R, safety devices and means for inflating the stiffeningcompartments.

The container body R comprises at its upper part an inspection man-hole20 closed by a cover 21 which is provided with a filling aperture 22,having a safety valve and an escape vent 23. Other vents are provided at24.

One of the end walls, for example wall 4, comprises a drain cock 25having a connection 26 for example of the fire-hose type, and an innerfilter 27.

For inflating the compartments P P there is provided above the containera conduit 28 supplied with compressed air by a pipe 29 through a valve30. The conduit 28 is connected to each compartment by a flexible pipe31, for example formed by a few spirals of pipe. A safety valve 32 andpressure gauge 33 are mounted on this conduit 28.

The improved container just described can be used at a fixed station oron a ground, river, sea or air vehicle. It can be attached to a supportplatform, such as S, by tightening devices T, for example having hooks34 and 35 adapted to engage round the longitudinal bars 15 of the frameC and round the lateral edges of the platform S, a screw 36 screwed inthe hook 35 permitting traction to be exerted on the other hook 34 whichis pivoted to a nut 37 threadedly engaged on the screw. 7

It will be observed that it is possible to interconnect a plurality offlexible containers according to the invention, stiffened by theinflation of their compartments and attached to their frames C, in themanner of a line of barges for transporting on the sea or rivers insteadof securing them to the deck or in the hold of a canal boat, cargo-shipor other ship.

Although a specific embodiment of the invention has been described, manymodifications and changes may be made therein Without departing from thescope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

The shape of these compartments can be other than the illustratedcrescent shape although the latter has shown itself to be particularlyelfective.

In the illustrated embodiment, the stiffening compartments areindependent of one another, but they could be interconnected by solid ortubular spacer elements. In this case these spacer elements arepreferably inflatable and their interiors preferably communicate withthe compartments they interconnect. Such spacer elements could bearranged as shown at E in FIG. 1. The container could be secured to theframe by further elements, such as longitudinal connecting ties orstraps.

Having now described my invention what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent is:

1. The combination comprising a container having:

a flexible skin defining a chamber for carrying bulk material,

substantially incompressible bulk material substantially completelyfilling the chamber,

bulk material inlet and outlet means in the skin, means for opening andclosing the inlet and outlet means,

inflated, fiuidtight compartment means secured to the skin, projectinginto the chamber, and compressively engaging said material,

the skin being under elastically yieldable tension which exceeds thatwhich it would normally have if the compartment means was not inflatedand the chamber was filled with bulk material and which is the result ofinflation of the compartment means subsequent to the filling of thechamber with the bulk material, which inflation is suflicient to createelastically yieldable forces tending to compress the bulk materialwhereby the container is stiffened against lateral sway.

2. A combination as recited in claim 1, wherein said compartment meanscomprises a plurality of compartments, each of which is of crescentshape and consists of two interconnected side walls which extendtransversely of the container, have identical crescent shapes, and haveinterconnected outer and inner edges of identical radius.

3. A combination as recited in claim 1, wherein said compartment meanscomprises a plurality of compartments which are independent from eachother, said combination further'including means for inflating saidcompartments.

4. A combination as recited in claim 1, wherein said compartment meanscomprises a plurality of compartments, said combination furtherincluding tubular and inflatable spacer elements extending between andcommunicating with said compartments.

5. A combination as recited in claim 1, including a rigid fiat anchoringframe, with said skin being anchored to said frame.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS V 573,625 12/1896 Rulfner. 1,840,053 1/1932 Prince 53-24 1,864,648 6/1932 Haines206-190 2,267,320 12/ 1941 Berch 53-22 2,612,910 10/1952 Krupp 138-1282,764,950 10/ 1956 Finnell 206- 2,782,794 2/1957 White -1 2,840,8287/1958 Furnberg 135-1 2,851,075 9/1958 Palfey ISO-0.5 2,900,994 8/1959Igoe 135-1 3,016,938 1/ 1962 Akrep ISO-0.5 3,044,515 7/1962 Eades -13,067,699 12/ 1962 Fredriks.

FOREIGN PATENTS 821,439 10/ 1959 Great Britain.

FRANKLIN T. GARRETT, Primary Examiner.

1. THE COMBINATION COMPRISING A CONTAINER HAVING: A FLEXIBLE SKINDEFINING A CHAMBER FOR CARRYING BULK MATERIAL, SUBSTANTIALLYINCOMPRESSIBLE BULK MATERIAL SUBSTANTIALLY COMPLETELY FILLING THECHAMBER, BULK MATERIAL INLET AND OUTLET MEANS IN THE SKIN, MEANS FOROPENING AND CLOSING THE INLET AND OUTLET MEANS, INFLATED, FLUIDTIGHTCOMPARTMENT MEANS SECURED TO THE SKIN, PROJECTING INTO THE CHAMBER, ANDCOMPRESSIVELY ENGAGING SAID MATERIAL, THE SKIN BEING UNDER ELASTICALLYYIELDABLE TENSION WHICH EXCEEDS THAT WHICH IT WOULD NORMALLY HAVE IF THECOMPARTMENT MEANS WAS NOT INFLATED AND THE CHAMBER WAS FILLED WITH BULKMATERIAL AND WHICH IS THE RESULT OF INFLATION OF THE COMPARTMENT MEANSSUBSEQUENT TO THE FILLING OF THE CHAMBER WITH THE BULK MATERIAL, WHICHINFLATION IS SUFFICIENT TO CREATE ELASTICALLY YIELDABLE FORCES TENDINGTO COMPRESS THE BULK MATERIAL WHEREBY THE CONTAINER IS STIFFENED AGAINSTLATERAL SWAY.